Megan Le Masurier | The University of Sydney (original) (raw)
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Papers by Megan Le Masurier
Everyday Revolutions: Remaking Gender, Sexuality and Culture in 1970s Australia, Aug 30, 2019
I am a scripture teacher in a girls' school and spend a lot of time trying to teach my girls the ... more I am a scripture teacher in a girls' school and spend a lot of time trying to teach my girls the value of chastity and clean living. But with publications such as yours writing so frankly about things which, to my mind, ought to be kept private, it is no wonder that young people today think of nothing but sex, sex, sex. 1
In the early years of the second wave, two very different approaches to female sexuality and femi... more In the early years of the second wave, two very different approaches to female sexuality and feminist politics were in circulation, Anne Koedt's 'The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm' and Germaine Greer's theory of cuntpower. While the clitoral orgasm became the 'feminist orgasm' during these years, Greer's more open and genitally inclusive theory of cuntpower encouraged women to explore the variations of their own heterosexuality in the name of women's and sexual liberation. This article will argue that Greer's ideas about cuntpower are worth resurrecting and integrating into our understanding of second wave feminist sexual politics. It will also argue that Greer's utilisation of the media allowed her ideas to influence ordinary women's understanding of the potential of their sexuality, their right to orgasm and its connection to women's liberation.
This essay considers the status of magazine studies as a cohesive and coherent discipline. We pon... more This essay considers the status of magazine studies as a cohesive and coherent discipline. We ponder why magazine studies, if considered at all, is usually conflated or elided with periodical studies and question whether this should be the case. We suggest that in addition to practical, methodological and disciplinary challenges (such as access to comprehensive searchable digital archives), and unlike periodical studies, magazine studies has been neglected because of associations with everyday culture and the feminine. We argue that magazine studies offers many rewards for scholars working in writing, literary and media studies and we offer up a case study of two of our postgraduate coursework units of study as examples of pedagogy and practice in a nascent field.
Description: This thesis was digitised for the purposes of Document Delivery. It is not available... more Description: This thesis was digitised for the purposes of Document Delivery. It is not available on open access and access is restricted. The item may be requested on Interlibrary Loan or viewed in the Rare Book Library at the University of Sydney. If you are ...
Feminist Media Studies, Jan 1, 2011
The nude male centrefold spread like a virus through the new women's magazines of the sevent... more The nude male centrefold spread like a virus through the new women's magazines of the seventies. At the time, and since, the academic gaze has viewed the centrefold as little more than a joke, a failure for feminism and female sexuality. This article returns to the heyday ...
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Jan 1, 2012
In current discussions of the democratization of media production, of 'we the media', where every... more In current discussions of the democratization of media production, of 'we the media', where everyone is a journalist, everyone a publisher, the focus has been on digital culture. Yet in the shadows of this explosion of digital-led creativity and media making, there has been a resurgence in the production of one of the oldest forms of media, the small-scale independently owned printed magazine. These magazines are being made by the young 'digital natives', informed and aided by digital literacy, but the medium of choice remains print. This article aims to describe and define these independent magazines (indies), distinguishing them from DIY zines, fanzines and mainstream niche consumer magazines. In their choice to rejuvenate rather than reject print, the indies allow us to explore the appeals of medium specificity and material culture, and how some of the current themes of media democratization -digital and design literacy, Pro-Ams, the DIWO ethos -are played out in this renewal of 'heritage' media.
Media International Australia, Incorporating …, Jan 1, 2009
Abstract: The second wave of feminism in Australia became a popular reality for ordinary women th... more Abstract: The second wave of feminism in Australia became a popular reality for ordinary women through many forms of media, and especially through the new women's magazine Cleo. The reader letters published in Cleo throughout the 1970s provide rich, if productively ...
aBout sYnergY, Jan 1, 2010
Australian Feminist Studies, Jan 1, 2007
Could you be a real feminist in 1970s Australia and enjoy reading Cleo? Could you find feminism t... more Could you be a real feminist in 1970s Australia and enjoy reading Cleo? Could you find feminism there? Within the parameters of more radical feminisms, the answer was no. To be an oppositional movement and yet inside the mainstream was one of many contradictions ...
Everyday Revolutions: Remaking Gender, Sexuality and Culture in 1970s Australia, Aug 30, 2019
I am a scripture teacher in a girls' school and spend a lot of time trying to teach my girls the ... more I am a scripture teacher in a girls' school and spend a lot of time trying to teach my girls the value of chastity and clean living. But with publications such as yours writing so frankly about things which, to my mind, ought to be kept private, it is no wonder that young people today think of nothing but sex, sex, sex. 1
In the early years of the second wave, two very different approaches to female sexuality and femi... more In the early years of the second wave, two very different approaches to female sexuality and feminist politics were in circulation, Anne Koedt's 'The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm' and Germaine Greer's theory of cuntpower. While the clitoral orgasm became the 'feminist orgasm' during these years, Greer's more open and genitally inclusive theory of cuntpower encouraged women to explore the variations of their own heterosexuality in the name of women's and sexual liberation. This article will argue that Greer's ideas about cuntpower are worth resurrecting and integrating into our understanding of second wave feminist sexual politics. It will also argue that Greer's utilisation of the media allowed her ideas to influence ordinary women's understanding of the potential of their sexuality, their right to orgasm and its connection to women's liberation.
This essay considers the status of magazine studies as a cohesive and coherent discipline. We pon... more This essay considers the status of magazine studies as a cohesive and coherent discipline. We ponder why magazine studies, if considered at all, is usually conflated or elided with periodical studies and question whether this should be the case. We suggest that in addition to practical, methodological and disciplinary challenges (such as access to comprehensive searchable digital archives), and unlike periodical studies, magazine studies has been neglected because of associations with everyday culture and the feminine. We argue that magazine studies offers many rewards for scholars working in writing, literary and media studies and we offer up a case study of two of our postgraduate coursework units of study as examples of pedagogy and practice in a nascent field.
Description: This thesis was digitised for the purposes of Document Delivery. It is not available... more Description: This thesis was digitised for the purposes of Document Delivery. It is not available on open access and access is restricted. The item may be requested on Interlibrary Loan or viewed in the Rare Book Library at the University of Sydney. If you are ...
Feminist Media Studies, Jan 1, 2011
The nude male centrefold spread like a virus through the new women's magazines of the sevent... more The nude male centrefold spread like a virus through the new women's magazines of the seventies. At the time, and since, the academic gaze has viewed the centrefold as little more than a joke, a failure for feminism and female sexuality. This article returns to the heyday ...
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Jan 1, 2012
In current discussions of the democratization of media production, of 'we the media', where every... more In current discussions of the democratization of media production, of 'we the media', where everyone is a journalist, everyone a publisher, the focus has been on digital culture. Yet in the shadows of this explosion of digital-led creativity and media making, there has been a resurgence in the production of one of the oldest forms of media, the small-scale independently owned printed magazine. These magazines are being made by the young 'digital natives', informed and aided by digital literacy, but the medium of choice remains print. This article aims to describe and define these independent magazines (indies), distinguishing them from DIY zines, fanzines and mainstream niche consumer magazines. In their choice to rejuvenate rather than reject print, the indies allow us to explore the appeals of medium specificity and material culture, and how some of the current themes of media democratization -digital and design literacy, Pro-Ams, the DIWO ethos -are played out in this renewal of 'heritage' media.
Media International Australia, Incorporating …, Jan 1, 2009
Abstract: The second wave of feminism in Australia became a popular reality for ordinary women th... more Abstract: The second wave of feminism in Australia became a popular reality for ordinary women through many forms of media, and especially through the new women's magazine Cleo. The reader letters published in Cleo throughout the 1970s provide rich, if productively ...
aBout sYnergY, Jan 1, 2010
Australian Feminist Studies, Jan 1, 2007
Could you be a real feminist in 1970s Australia and enjoy reading Cleo? Could you find feminism t... more Could you be a real feminist in 1970s Australia and enjoy reading Cleo? Could you find feminism there? Within the parameters of more radical feminisms, the answer was no. To be an oppositional movement and yet inside the mainstream was one of many contradictions ...